Dr KARL SHUKER

Zoologist, media consultant, and science writer, Dr Karl Shuker is also one of the best known cryptozoologists in the world. Author of such seminal works as Mystery Cats of the World (1989), The Lost Ark: New and Rediscovered Animals of the 20th Century (1993; greatly expanded in 2012 as The Encyclopaedia of New and Rediscovered Animals), In Search of Prehistoric Survivors (1995), and more recently Extraordinary Animals Revisited (2007), Dr Shuker's Casebook (2008), Karl Shuker's Alien Zoo: From the Pages of Fortean Times (2010), Cats of Magic, Mythology, and Mystery (2012), and Mirabilis: A Carnival of Cryptozoology and Unnatural History (2013), his many fans have been badgering him to join the blogosphere for years. The CFZ Blog Network is proud to have finally persuaded him to do so.

Welcome to my 500th ShukerNature blog
post! To mark this momentous occasion, I have pleasure in presenting for your
entertainment and interest the following equally momentous list – the Top Ten
ShukerNature posts of all time, based upon hit counts. And here they are, each one
with its own clickable direct link to the post itself.

Analysing this list, several intriguing if not readily explainable facts swiftly emerge.

First and foremost, melanistic cats – most especially black lions
– clearly hold an abiding fascination for ShukerNature readers. The popularity
of my all-time #1 blog post, exposing various online black lion photographs as
photo-manipulated hoaxes, is truly, outrageously, and – above all else –
inexplicably phenomenal! What on earth is it about black lions that should have
generated well over 1 million hits for this particular post since I uploaded it
just over 3 years ago, far more than any other ShukerNature post, and
continuing to add to that count by the thousands each week?

Collectively, ShukerNature's 500 posts have
garnered a total hits count of just over 5.1 million, which means that this one
single post has contributed more than 20% of that total all by itself! Nor does it
end there. A follow-up post of mine exposing a further black lion photo as yet another
hoax also makes the all-time Top Ten ShukerNature posts list (coming in at #8),
and my examination of the highly contentious issue of whether black pumas exist is at #5.

Equally perplexing is why four of the ten posts in
this all-time Top Ten list originated from the very same month, August 2012, bearing
in mind that I have been posting on ShukerNature from 20 January
2009 right up to the
present day, and on a regular basis throughout that sizeable time span too. What
was/is so special about that specific month, therefore, particularly as the
four posts in question from it deal with four entirely different subjects?
True, the poodle moth was attracting tremendous online interest at the time of
my post, so that would definitely have helped focus attention upon it here on my blog too. And the term 'penis snake', as invented by the media for it, no doubt
explains why a large but hitherto highly-obscure species of aquatic amphibian lacking limbs and
lungs has received such a high hits count on here.

Certainly, there is no doubt that photos of weird animals
that have gone viral online prove popular subjects for ShukerNature posts,
especially those posts that investigate what the creatures portrayed in such
photos are and whether such photos are genuine or fake. The success of my two
black lion posts exemplify this trend, as do those dealing respectively with
the poodle moth, the potoo, the alleged half-human half-rabbit hybrid, and the many
bizarre beasts created by Takeshi Yamada.

As for the two remaining posts in this list,
dealing with merfolk and giant snakes respectively, these are perennially popular
cryptozoological subjects. Consequently, their presence should come as no
surprise.

Looking back one last time at this all-time Top Ten list,
there is no doubt that I could never have predicted which of my 500
ShukerNature posts would have made the cut. And when uploading the first
of my black lion posts back in June 2012, a post that took no more than half an hour to
prepare, I never dreamed even for an instant that it would become the runaway
ShukerNature success story that it has done and still is, seemingly destined never to be overtaken
by any other post on this blog of mine, regardless of its subject, and continuing to increase its
count by significant amounts on a daily basis.

But what about the other nine posts in this list?
Will they still be in the Top Ten when or if a 1000th ShukerNature
post is uploaded one day? Who can say? If I've derived nothing else from this list, I
have definitely learnt from it to expect the unexpected – which only serves to increase
my passion for preparing further ShukerNature posts in the future, as well as my fervent
hope that you will continue to enjoy reading and re-reading them. So here's to
the next 500, and thank you all as ever for your continuing encouragement and interest in my researches and writings!

Congratulations on your 500th post Dr. Shuker!.What a constant source of fascination, information, intrigue, humor, and sheer delight! How did I miss your blogs all these years? I discovered it a while back when I was looking for info on the mysterious and elusive giant salamanders of Northern California, but only now figured how to comment here. Thanks for all your work in making this blog available.All the best to you!

SHUKERNATURE SURVIVAL

If you'd like to assist me in my ongoing crypto-investigations, even the smallest donation would be immensely appreciated. All donations are non-profit-making, going exclusively towards the updating/maintenance of my crypto-archives' source material and other necessities that enable me to continue researching and blogging my findings right here for you on ShukerNature. Thank you so much for your help! - Karl

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In Accordance with Title 17 USC Section 107, any copyright material on display here is under Fair Use without any claim of ownership or any profit accrued by the display. The Material herein is for non-profit educational or criticism puposes only. Notwithstanding the provisions of Sections 106 and 106a, the fair use of a copyrighted work including reproduction and distribution of said material as specified in that section, for purposes of education, news reporting, commentary or criticism, scholarship or research, to persons who have expressed a prior interest in receiving such material for such purposes, is NOT an infringement. Also: Unless stated otherwise, all illustrations in ShukerNature blog articles that are credited to a named copyright owner plus Wikipedia have been made available by the copyright owner and Wikipedia for third-person use under the conditions of the Creative Commons Licence. Should any copyright holder of any of the illustrations included on ShukerNature not wish those illustrations to be included here, please contact me and I shall of course remove them.

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